After serving a five-game suspension for protesting his love for Fidel Castro, Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen will return to the dugout Tuesday night for the team’s home opener against the Chicago Cubs. Though the suspension came amid calls for Guillen’s ouster by some affronted anti-Castroites, the lack of widespread outrage to the notoriously big-mouthed manager’s comments — not to mention the lack of terrorist bombings — signals a profound change in attitude among Cubans in Miami, according to a piece by ESPN writer Wright Thompson. “This is a very, very faint echo of what used to be,” Thompson quotes a Cuban-American friend as saying. “Back in the ’70s, they would have blown up Marlins Park. If you understand that the Watergate burglars were trying to overthrow Fidel, and that people used to blow each other up in the ’70s and ’80s, then the Guillen thing gets more interesting, both because of what he said — and because of what didn’t happen.”

Thompson’s piece is a poignant and fascinating portrait of Miami and the dying Bay of Pigs generation. To read it in full, visit ESPN.com. Here’s the video that accompanies the article.

One Comment on “Lack of outrage, bombing over Guillen’s Castro love signals new Miami”

Great article. Finally someone (from outside Miami obviously) to say what needs to be said. It’s powerful to hear a veteran of the conflict describe how he’s left the hate behind. But more than anything the Cuban-American demographic is getting younger and moving away from this whole anti-Fidel sentiment.

The one question I want answered is: how many Cuban-Americans go see the Marlins?